My Mind Told Me To - Part 2 - Illusions

*Read the first story for this one to make more sense*

My mom and I stared at each other in bewilderment for a few moments. Then she turned around, facing my dad, calling,” Matt! This girl is our daughter!” 

My dad’s face swivelled around, squinting at me with his ice-blue eyes. “Veronica, what’s her name again?” he asked, glancing at me with worried eyes. Normally, if your parents asked the other what your name was, you probably would’ve felt bad, but since I haven’t seen my parents in 4 years, I forgave them for not remembering. “I don’t remember,” said my mom, both of them now looking at me. “Do you remember?” my dad asked me. I looked in his eyes, swirling waves of blue. “No, I forgot too,” I replied. 

We all looked at each other, thinking. “Would it be okay if we renamed you?” my dad asked. I nodded my head, raking my brain for my name. I haven’t heard anyone say my name in 4 years, so it was not an easy task. “What about Mary?” Mom asked. “Sounds too traditional,” Dad said. “Hannah?” Mom suggested. My dad shook his head. Mom put her hand on her chin, thinking. “What about Violet?” My dad made Mm-hmm sounds while nodding his head. “Ok, so your name is Violet,” my mom said, looking at me with cheerful eyes. Well, that’s what I thought she said. She and my dad had gags over their mouths, so I wasn’t SURE that was exactly what they said, but eh, close enough. 

“Do you want me to untie you?” I asked, noticing their uncomfort. Mom and Dad both nodded frantically. I walked behind my mom, untied the gag, and the cloth holding her wrists together. My mom then shook out her limbs, then went over to Dad to untie him. After my mom and dad did a few rounds of the hokey-pokey, Dad spoke in a whisper,” We have to escape this place. Me and your mom have been here for a very long time, so now that you’re here, we can escape.” I was a bit confused because my mom and dad couldn’t have been here for 4 years, but my mom interrupted my thoughts with a plan. “This building is massive, and there’s lots of illusions. Don’t think things are exactly what you think they are.” I nodded, and my dad gestured forward. “Lead the way, Violet.” 

Hearing my new name for the first time was interesting, like when someone thought you were somebody else, so they call you over, but you weren’t the person that they were looking for. This would have to be getting used to, I thought. Hey, I came in through that door, so let’s just exit through the same door! Simple, right? Well, I crept toward the door with my parents behind me, and when I reached out to grab the handle, I couldn’t find it. I turned, facing my mom and dad. “Where’s the door?” “I told, you, things aren’t as they seem,” Dad said. I scanned the dusty wall in front of me. No door. Where could it have gone? I stepped to the side, feeling the wall for any sign of an exit, when the floor opened up. Mom, Dad and I fell into the darkness, never to be seen again. That would have been a simple, nice cliffhanger ending. But did it end? No, it didn’t. 

We turned and tumbled in the darkness, and when I caught a glimpse of the ground, we were underwater. Who knows how we got there, and how we could breathe, but as soon as we landed on the “ocean floor”, out of nowhere a great white shark popped in, looking very hungry. Mom dragged me out of the sand, swimming/running with Dad behind us. 

We were starting to get tired, swimming from a shark, but then the shark went POOF! and we appeared in an elevator. “The water’s rising!” Dad yelled. I looked down at my feet, and water (maybe from that ocean) was rising higher every second, now at our waists. I waved my hands frantically at Mom, signalling that she needed to do something. The water was at our necks when a bright red button appeared on the otherwise-empty elevator wall. Mom slammed it, and we appeared right back where we started. 

Out of breath, I asked my dad,” Is this what you were talking about?” Dad nodded his head. “I think that was just a test,” he said.”To escape we’re gonna have to go through more life-threatening things.” I sighed, brushing the dust off my pants. “ If we’re gonna escape this place, we should start now,” I said, realizing the shark we met earlier had not been the hardest obstacle that this building had in store. My mom and dad got up with a groan and stepped up behind me, like I was their protector. Should be the other way around, I thought. 

Anywho, we decided to NOT look for a door, because maybe if we didn’t look for it, it would come. I was partially right. A door appeared right where I was looking for it earlier (could’ve been helpful then, couldn’t it), so I grabbed the handle and pulled. It opened, just like a normal door. I stepped forward, expecting to come out the same way I got in, but my mom grabbed the back of my shirt, stopping me. I looked down and realized I almost walked off a cliff. The bottom was darker than the night sky, and it seemed to be endless.  Mom pulled me up, and I said,” Thanks.” She nodded. I closed my eyes for a couple of seconds and looked at the ground. The cliff was gone.  We all walked forward, not springing any traps (luckily). 

Suddenly, walls sprung up around us, trapping us. We all huddled together, afraid of what would happen. Everything was still. We were ABOUT to relax, but that’s when Dad started turning transparent. Transparent as in, ghostly. He started slowly fading, and Mom shouted, “Matt! MATT! WHERE ARE YOU GOING??!!” Dad put his hands up in an I- don’t- know gesture, mouthing words that we couldn’t hear until he faded to nothing. Mom looked at me with worried eyes asking,” How do we get him back?” I did the same gesture that Dad did, not knowing how or even IF we would get him back. The walls lowered, letting us proceed to escape the building. 

I’m not gonna describe all the obstacles we had to go through, cause that would take a LONG TIME. But some of them included swimming through a pool of icing, battling a swarm of killer bees, and pushing through a mob of concrete bubbles. I know, it’s weird. Anyways, we managed to find an exit to a room with TV’s caked on the walls and a glowing blue bed in the corner. The TV’s read BREAKING NEWS: A Category 6 Hurricane is spinning fast toward the city, caused by someone known as the ‘Shadow’. If you have any information about them, contact the government immediately. I realized that 5 was the highest Category of hurricanes, and there was someone on the bed. Dad. I ran toward the bed, looking down at my dad’s face. His face was a pale gray, with his neck veins bulging out. There was a tube connecting from my dad’s wrist to a big blue glowing tank. Mom ran over, and her face got clouded with worry when she realized who was in the bed. She covered her face with her hands. Then I heard the cold click-clack of shoes.

A black figure stepped out of the darkness, the same person who kidnapped me in the first place. He slowly stepped out into the light, smiling his cruel smile. On another side of the room, half a dozen police officers jumped out of nowhere (as they always do). The front one shouted,” You! Get over here! You’re the Shadow!” We heard a whistle of wind outside the building and the clang of metal. Dad’s eyes glazed over, the irises turning white. “Yes,” the figure said in his deep voice. “I AM THE SHADOW.”